Removable jaw face for a slidable side jaw wrench



Dec. 12, 1961 D. D. POWELL ETAL 3,012,457

REMOVABLE JAW FACE FOR A SLIDABLE SIDE JAW WRENCH Filed May 20, 1960 INVENTOR-S DAV": 'D. POWELL 67 BY \IALJEAH \MJoues AT TO EUEYS United States Patent M 3,012,457 REMOVABLE JAW FACE FOR A SLIDABLE SIDE JAW WRENCH David D. Powell, Rte. 2, Box 416, Centralia, Wash, and

This invention relates to a novel pipe jaw equipped slidable jaw wrench.

The primary object of the invention is the provision of a simpler, more efiicient, and more practical wrench of the kind indicated, wherein the pipe jaw adapter can be inserted and removed more easily and quickly, without the use of tools, and without reference to retaining means, such as detent means of rigid or spring forms.

Another object of the invention is to provide a simple and inexpensive wrench of the character indicated above, which can be a conventional screw-operated crescent nut wrench, wherein the pipe jaw'adapter has a tang which is removably and retainably inserted in an opening which is provided in the fixed jaw of the wrench, with minimum mutilation of the movable jaw, and wherein the adapter is dimensioned and located soas not to undesirably extend beyond the sides or the outer end of the wrench jaw.

Other important objects and advantageous features of the invention will be apparent from the following description and the accompanying drawings, wherein, for purposes of illustration only, a specific form of the invention is set forth in detail.

In the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a Wrench of the present invention;

FlGURE 2 is an enlarged fragmentary vertical longitudinal section taken on the line 22 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a horizontal section taken on the line 33 of FIGURE 2;

FIGURE 4 is a view similar to FIGURE 2, showing the pipe jaw adapter in process of removal or insertion in the wrench; and

FIGURE 5 is an exploded perspective view showing the adapter removed from the wrench.

Referring in detail to the drawings, wherein like numerals designate like parts throughout the several views, the illustrated wrench comprises an elongated handle having a wrench head 12 on its forward end, which includes a fixed jaw 14. The fixed jaw 14 extends longitudinally from the head 12 and is laterally displaced from the longitudinal centerline of the handle 10, and has a flat gripping face 16.

The fixed jaw 14 is connected to the head 12 by a pair of laterally spaced flanges 18 extending forwardly from the head and having free forward edges 20. The facing sides of the flanges 18 include flat parallel forward portions 22 and rear concave portions 24, which severally define slideways for the flat reduced shank 26 and the cylindrical guide 28 of a movable wrench jaw 30. Journaled in an opening 32 in the head 12', behind the flanges 18 and the guide 28, is a worm gear 34 whose thread 36 is engaged with rack teeth 38 on the guide 28, for opening and closing the movable jaw 30 relative to the fixed jaw 14. The body 40 of the movable jaw 30 is substantially similar to the body 42 of the fixed jaw, and has a flat gripping face 44 opposed to and registered with the face 16.

In accordance with the present invention, the fixed jaw 14 already has, or is formed to provide, at the inward end of its body 42, a preferably straight and flat inclined surface 46, which extends longitudinally inwardly and downwardly from the gripping face 16, between the flanges 18, and can meet the guide slideway 24. This arrangement 3,012,457 Patented Dec. 12, 1961 provides two obtusely angled and intersecting bearing surfaces 16 and 46 for supporting and retaining a pipe jaw adapter 48.

The adapter 48 comprises a body 50 of the same length and width as the gripping face 16 of the fixed wrench jaw 14 and having outer and inner ends 52 and 54, respectively. Fixedly centered on and preferably integral with the inner end 54 of the adapter body 50 is a relatively narrow and inwardly and downwardly declining tang 56, which is spaced from the sides of the body 50.

The adapter body 50 has a flat undersnrface 58, to bear conformably and in registry with the gripping face 16 of the fixed wrench jaw 14, and the tang 56 has a flat undersurface 60 to bear conformably and in registry with the inclined surface 46, between the fixed jaw flanges 18, the angulation of the undersurfaces 58 and 60 being the same as the angulation, relative to each other, of the gripping face 16 and the inclined surface 46. The tang 56 is of a width to fit snugly between the parallel forward surface portions 22 of the flanges 18, so that the adapter body 50 is held against shifting out of place upon the gripping face 16..

Further stabilizing the adapter body 50 in place on the fixed jaw 14 are inwardly inclined abutment shoulders 62 provided on the rear end of the body 50, at opposite sides of the tang 56, which are formed for conformable and supporting engagement with outwardly inclined lower end portions 64 on the free edges of the flanges 18.

Part of the upper edge of the tang 56 is tapered, as indicated at 66, for clearance with the guide 28, when the movable jaw 30 is moved toward the fixed jaw 14, and the upper edge of the tang has a flat outer end portion 68 which is outwardly inclined at an angle to provide clearance with the inwardly declining free edge 70 of the web 72 of the movable jaw 30, which extends between the body 50 and the guide 28, between the flanges 18, as the movable jaw 30 is closed toward the fixed jaw 14. The upper surface 74 of the adapter body 50 is outwardly and downwardly tapered, relative to the undersurface 58 of the body 50, which is formed with upstanding longitudinally spaced pipe-gripping teeth 76.

The illustrated wrench, equipped with an adapter 48, is used like an ordinary pipe wrench, and, in such use, the tendency of the adapter to be shifted longitudinally inwardly along the fixed jaw face 16, by engagement of the tapered upper surface 74 thereof with the pipe, is resisted by the engagement of the shoulders 62 with the portions 64 on the free edges of the flanges 18.

Whenever it is desired to use the illustrated wrench as a nut wrench, the adapter 48 is simply lifted out of place and put aside for future use in the wrench.

Although there has been shown and described herein a preferred form of the invention, it is to be understood that the invention is not necessarily confined thereto, and that any change or changes in the structure of and in the relative arrangements of components thereof are contemplated as being within the scope of the invention as defined by the claims appended hereto.

What is claimed is:

l. A wrench having a head having a fixed jaw having a gripping face, said head having a slideway, a movable jaw opposed to said fixed jaw and having a gripping face, said movable jaw having a web slidably confined in said slideway, means for moving the movable jaw toward and away from the fixed jaw, a pair of laterally spaced flanges projecting from said head toward the jaws, said flanges having free edges and partly defining said slidcway tlrerebetween, said fixed jaw having a declining surface intersecting and angled away from the gripping face of the fixed jaw and extending between said flanges, and a removable pipe jaw adapter comprising a toothed body lying upon the gripping face of the fixed jaw, said body having an outer end and an inner end, and a declining tang fixed on the rear end of the body and snugly engaging said inclined surface between the flanges, said tang being narrower than the adapter body and centered with respect thereto, the inner end of the adapter body having shoulders at 0pposite sides of the tang which bear against the free edges of the flanges, the gripping face of the fixed jaw and said inclined surface being flat and disposed at an obtuse angle relative to each other, said adapter body having a flat undersurface conformably engaged with the gripping surface, and said tang having a flat undersurface conformably engaged with said inclined surface. a

2. A wrench having a head having a fixed jaw having a gripping face, said head having a slideway, a movable jaw opposed to said fixed jaw and having agripping face, said movable jaw having a web slidably confined in said slideway, means for moving the movable jaw toward and away from the fixed jaw, a pair of laterally spaced flanges projecting from said head toward the jaws, said flanges having free edges and partly defining said slideway therebetween, said fixed jaw having a declining surface intersecting and angled away from the gripping face of the fixed jaw and extending between said flanges, and a removable pipe jaw adapter comprising a toothed body.

lying upon the gripping face of the fixed jaw, said body having an outer end and an inner end, and a declining tang fixed on the rear end of the body and snugly engaging said inclined surface between the flanges, said tang being narrower than the adapter body and centered with respect thereto, the inner end of the adapter body having shoulders at opposite sides of the tang which bear against the free edges of the flanges, the gripping face of the fixed jaw and said inclined surface being flat and disposed at an obtuse angle relative to each other, said adapter body having a flat undersurface conformably engaged with the gripping surface, and said tanghaving a flat undersurface conformably engaged with said inclined surface, said free edges of the flanges having abutment end portions adjacent to the fixed jaw which decline toward the gripping face of the fixed jaw, and said shoulders being similarly angled relative to the'undersurface of the adapter body and being conformably engaged with said abutment end portions.

- References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

